The Summoning
by Siezai
Summary: AU. Yukio's sole reason for arriving at True Cross Academy is to find out why Satan killed his foster father. However, when Yukio reveals his power as a tamer by summoning the Prince of Gehenna himself- a demon who shouldn't exist- Well, everything just got a lot more complicated.
1. Prologue

**Authors Note: Helllloooo~! This is my first published fanfiction, so yeah! Please correct me if I make any mistakes, 'cause I don't have a beta. Thanks for reading!**

**IMPORTANT: This is an AU in which Rin is not Yukio's brother, although Yukio was still raised by Shiro Fujimoto (who's still Yukio's foster father). Therefore, he did not suffer early temptaint, and he also didn't have that protective complex concerning his brother, so he did not become an exorcist at an early age like in the manga. Rin is still the main character, though. He just doesn't show up 'till, say, next chapter.**

**Btw, this is completely manga-verse, with the exception of Ukobach.**

~Prologue~

Yukio rubbed his eyes furiously, refusing to show tears. _I have to be strong. For Father. _He stared longingly at the freshly placed gravestone before a clenching feeling wrapped around his heart, and he was forced to turn away.

It had been a week ago when Yukio found his foster father, Shiro Fujimoto, collapsed on the floor of the monastery basement, clutching his heart and bleeding from practically every visible orifice. And then when Shiro was consumed with blue flames, Yukio found his dying foster father handing him, of all things, a simple flip phone. His last words were forever embedded in the teenager's mind.

"_When you leave the monastery… I want you to use this… There is a single number stored in its memory… It's a number of a friend of mine… Who will protect you… from the demons…"_

Yukio still didn't fully understand why he needed protection from demons, who supposedly weren't supposed to exist. But after that night, after the unnaturally cold flames devoured his father, Yukio began to wonder and doubt the existence of such creatures- which was very, very bad for a man of science such as himself to do.

Needing a distraction, Yukio swiftly glanced to check if anyone was watching nearby before whipping out the cell phone that Shiro had given him. It indeed only had one number, with no name.

_Riiiing. Riiiing. Riiiing. Bip._

"A pleasure to meet you, Okumura Yukio."

Yukio looked up to see himself surrounded by a loose ring of men, dressed in long black garb, with the exception of what looked like the leader. Though his capability as a leader could probably be questioned.

The man who had spoken was tall and had a rather sinister face- dark eyes and a purplish goatee- which clashed violently with his odd taste in clothing. He was wearing a white stove-top hat, a large (also white) cape over a tailed coat, and puffy white breeches. His comical striped stockings and pointed boots only made it worse. Wielding a patched up umbrella, the man looked like something that had escaped from a torture circus.

"My name is Mephisto Pheles. I am a friend of Fujimoto's, and also, coincidentally, the chairman of the True Cross Academy, which I am aware you will be attending soon."

Yukio nodded soundlessly. He was, indeed, going to True Cross Academy that fall.

"You have my sympathies for what you went through."

Not entirely ready to trust him yet, Yukio cautiously retorted, "Instead of your condolences, I would much prefer an explanation."

A purple eyebrow shot up. "Hmm? Quick to the chase, are we?" After a long, awkward silence, he added, "I will explain everything on the way there."

"Where?"

"To True Cross Academy, of course."

Yukio really shouldn't have been surprised at the electrically pink limousine that arrived soon after, but he couldn't help wonder where the supposed chairman's sanity had gone. After his meager amount of personal possessions were loaded into the trunk, Yukio warily stepped into the absurd vehicle and looked at Mr. Pheles, expecting an explanation.

"What killed Father?"

Mephisto turned to glance at Yukio. "A demon."

Yukio was a little thrown back at the blunt reply, but stared keenly at Mephisto none the less.

"Demons exist in another world, known as Ghenna. You live in Assiah, which is the human's realm. The only means of travel between the two are for a demon to possess an object in Assiah. Different demons possess different things, and seek to destroy all forms of happiness in Assiah. The one that possessed Shiro had incredible power, and consequently, destroyed your father's body."

Yukio absorbed all of this, and tried to ignore the nagging, unreasonable feeling that made him want to punch Mephisto's deranged lights out and get out of that car _as fast as possible_. "But why did the demon kill Father?"

Mephisto chuckled. "Your father was an exorcist. The highest ranked, in fact. A Paladin. Exorcists make it their duty to exterminate demons. The one who killed your father did not need any other reason."

Yukio glared at the chairman. "Then, what kind of demon was it?"

"The God of Demons- Satan himself."


	2. Art of Sealing

**Authors Note: Um… The first chapter is here?**

~Chapter One: Art of Sealing~

"How ya' doin', Yukio?"

Yukio looked up from his lunch. Seeing the familiar faces, he smiled and responded with an 'I'm fine' and gestured to the seat next to his. The other students grinned and took their spots besides him.

These were his friends so far after the first week of True Cross Academy school life. Bon, a rowdy (and buff) but hardworking student with a rebellious stripe of blond cutting through his black hair; Konekomaru, who, in contrast, was of a much smaller build and wore nerdy glasses; and Shima, a 'womanizer' by all meanings of the word, and whose hair was a rather unfathomable pink. These three were a closely knit group of friends from the town of Kyoto who had all grown up together. Beyond these two, Yukio had also acquainted with Izumo and Shiemi, both girls who he did not get to meet as much. Izumo happened to be in his class in cram school, the school for exorcists-in-training, and Shiemi helped her mother at the herbal storage, to which Yukio often had to make errand trips to.

"I'm good, Bon. What about you?"

Bon took this opportunity with zeal. "Man, cram is so bothersome! In order ta' stay on top, there's so you gotta know, not ta' mention regular classes as well. If exorcist training weren't so interestin', I'd probably be studying right now!"

Yukio spared himself a smile before interjecting, "Forget I ever asked, Suguro."

"Hey! Don't ask when you don't want an answer!" With that, the four students settled into a comfortably silent meal, digging with a hurried 'itadakimasu.'

~†~

Cram school. The name of the section of True Cross Academy specifically designed for the education of students wishing to become exorcists- known as pages.

Yukio looked down at the intricate key he held. According to the chairman Mephisto, this key could open any door entering the cram school building. Yukio had seen it do its magic firsthand, but he still didn't understand how it worked, something that would forevermore piss him off.

With a mental shrug, he inserted the key into the plain door ('_Probably a maintenance door_') and turned clockwise. Upon entering the cram school, Yukio was greeted with rather over-exaggerated gothic style windows and designs. The high ceilings brought with them a sense of emptiness as his footsteps echoed through the hallway.

The classroom that Yukio's class was situated in today was a, at first glance, somewhat rundown room, with faded paint. The reason for this was told to them on the first day by an apprehensive teacher. Apparently they didn't want one of the newer classrooms to be demolished by any of the 'experiments' that were conducted in class, which subsequently caused the students to wonder what kind of training was in store for them.

The desks could each seat two people, and there were about four rows of four desks in each classroom. Currently, Bon and Konekumaru occupied a desk together, with Shima sitting alone besides them, dejectedly trying to get Izumo's attention while she was chatted vividly with Paku, one of her friends.

Taking a seat at the front of the classroom, Yukio sat for a moment before promptly wanting to fall out of his chair, which he didn't, because his outwards expression of emotions was quite dull at that time. The cause for his surprise was none other than a shy Shiemi standing awkwardly at the doorway, the teacher, Igor Neuhaus, behind her.

"S-Shiemi? What are you doing here? This is cram school!"

"Ah… Y-Yukio…" Shiemi looked down at her feet, her ears a fiery red. Neuhaus assuredly put a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"This is Shiemi Moriyama, a new student at cram school. She will be joining your class."

This was met by the blank stares of Izumo and Bon, a crashing which was Shima falling out of his chair, and Yukio… Well, Yukio just stared.

"Uh… Shiemi? Why are you attending cram school?"

The girl looked up. She embarrassedly shouted, "B-Because I want to be strong like you, Yuki-chan!" Bon snickered at the nickname Shiemi had given me a while ago, only forcing her to flush more.

"O-oh…"

After a pregnant pause, Shiemi walked- or rather, ran- to Yukio's desk, and plopped herself down next to him after asking consent. Another giggle-filled silence later, class was well under way, though Yukio couldn't help shooting glances every few minutes at Shiemi to try and understand her motives.

"Alright class, today we will be studying the art of sealing and magic circles, also known as the Art of Summoning. Pay attention." Neuhaus told the students to push all the desks to the edge of the classroom, leaving a wide open space, and pulled out (from seemingly nowhere) a piece of chalk. Kneeling on the floor, the teacher carefully traced out a complex summoning circle filled with ritualistic writing.

Neuhaus then pulled back his right sleeve, while doing so saying, "Don't step on the magic circle, or the summoning will be canceled." The classmates gasped at seeing the bandages wrapped around his hand, stained a light pink. He unraveled the cloth carefully, allowing a miniscule amount of blood to drip onto the summoning circle. "In order to successfully call forth a being, it is necessary to present any amount of your blood as well as an appeal."

Gesturing for the students to stand back, Nehuas chanted, "_The son of Typhoeus and Echidna, answer my request and come out!_"

An eerie moan issued from the summoning circle before Yukio witnessed a black blob emerging from the ground, taking the vague shape of a human on all fours. When the mysterious (as in, no one knew where it came from) smoke finally dispersed, a naberius remained in the center of the circle. Resembling a corpse, it emitted a rotten miasma and dripped black blood onto the floor. After Nauhaus was sure everyone'd had a good look at the foul demon, he used his foot to smudge the edge of the circle and the naberius disappeared in a cloud of putrid smoke.

Neuhaus looked each student in the eye before continuing, "Natural talent is essential for a tamer to be able to summon a demon. Now I'll be testing you for that talent. Everyone, please take one of these papers with summoning circles drawn on them, prick your finger to drip some blood, and chant any words that come to mind."

As the rest of the class shuffled forward to take a sheet, Yukio hung back, unsure. He already had his eyes set on becoming a dragoon, a master of long-range weapons, and therefore found no reason to try for a tamer. However, his inner curiosity won out, and in the end, Yukio took one as well.

"_I ask the grace of Inari, the God of Harvest, to fulfill my prayers!_" Izumo finished her appeal with a flourish, successfully summoning two quite beautiful fox-creatures- byakkos.

"Good job, Izumo. Simply splendid." Neuhaus looked genuinely impressed at Izumo's display. Yukio watched as Shiemi looked on in envy, and the Kyoto trio all sighed as they failed miserably, none of them having any taming ability.

"So cool!" Shiemi squeaked. "I want to try!" Holding her summoning paper out like some kind of seal, she said, "_Come out, come out wherever you are~~_ ... Just kidding!"

Yukio stood, flabbergasted by her aloof chant that _actually seemed to work_, for a small green demon resembling a teddy bear appeared in a haze of smoke. 'Nii!' it cried.

"Woah- So kawaii!" Shiemi gasped, clapping her petite hands around the equally small demon.

"... A greenman spirit. Quite rare." Even Yukio could tell that Neuhaus was much less enthusiastic this time. Izumo snorted at the small creature, muttering, 'pathetic,' under her breath. "Well, there seems to be a bumper crops of tamers this year, is there anyone else that wants to try?" Neuhaus turned to look at Yukio. "What about you?"

Yukio nodded, carefully keeping his face empty of emotion. According to the teacher, the appeal for summoning a demon should naturally appear in the tamer's mind, as if on instinct. Unfortunately, Yukio was not much of a man of instinct, so he instead relied upon his memories. Pulling a jumble of words out from a book he remembered Shiro reading to him as a kid, Yukio started chanting.

_"Fallen angel from the sky_

_Bearer of eternal light,_

_Heed the calling for a prince,_

_Arrive in the flames of night!"_

As soon as the words were out, Yukio knew he'd just made a mistake. A big one. He knew because there was an unsettling feeling of fear mingled with dread sitting at the bottom of his stomach, devouring his lunch. That and the fact that nothing happened. Yukio thought he'd just gotten a little too worked up, and that he'd just embarrassed himself in front of the whole class by muttering some creepy chant like a possessed woman. (Not that Yukio had anything against women.)

But then there was a blaze of blue light- a cyan explosion that hadn't been here when the other students summoned their familiars. It must've been fire, because an overwhelmingly burning blast of heat hit the exorcists-in-training's faces on full throttle, leaving most of them quite uncomfortable. When the flames died down, they left a plume of not-quite-smoke that looked gray but didn't smell or suffocate. As the not-quite-smoke floated away, the students could make out a figure, the demon that Yukio had summoned, standing in the middle of the floor.

After being able to see the demon clearly, even Neuhaus let out a gasp.

It was as close to a human as they believed a demon could get. In fact, at first sight, the creature was a human. 'It' was a navy-haired, averaged height teenage boy, with bright, electric blue eyes and a rather round face. He was wearing a red shirt under a black leather jacket, and ripped jeans. He had a strange, long object wrapped in a red bag slung over his back.

Upon closer inspection, however, it was apparent that he was not a human. He sported sharp, razor-like teeth, pointed ears, and a black furry tail, all signs of a human under demon possession. But he also had two blazing globes of fire at each side of the head, where a demon's horns might be, and the end of the boy's tail was burning the said flames.

"H-how... What..." the teacher spluttered.

Yukio could only nod along silently, as he was also at a loss for words. He most definitely did not recognize this demon from any of his demonology classes. Maybe they hadn't studied this type of demon before...?

But what happened next made everyone (if this was even possible) even more astounded.

With a sweep of the eyes, the demon straightened its back and opened its mouth.

"Where the fuck am I?"


	3. Prince and Pawn

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, guys! :D Gawd this story's only been up for like a few days and already over 10 reviews WOW I can't**

***Breaks down in tears of joy.* Just... Thanks so much guys! **

**For now, my update schedule's rather erratic, but from now on I'll try and update about once a week at least, probably on the weekend.**

**IMPORTANT: For this AU, Rin and Yukio's personalities may vary a bit. For example, Rin will be less friendly and more aggressive due to being raised by Satan. Yukio will be less 'secluded' and introverted because he didnt have to "protect Rin" and all that stuff.**

**I'm not too happy about how this chapter turned out, but I wanted to put it out sooner, so here's chapter two!**

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~ Chapter 2: Prince and Pawn ~

"W-What?"

Yukio was the first to regain his wits. Not pleasantly, that is- it came with a dread-filled lurch in his stomach.

The demon boy rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Well, generally, when someone says-"

"You can talk?" Neuhaus interrupted, recovering too from the initial shock. His stern voice was much firmer and forceful than Yukio's shaky one, though.

"Oi! Listen when someone's speaking to you!" The demon whirled around to face the teacher, a nasty snarl plastered on his face. "Damn right I can talk. What do you take me for? A retarded low-class demon?"

_Well, that's definitely what we were all expecting. _Yukio resisted the strong urge to sigh at the demon's rhetorical inquiry.

"...If that's not what you are, then... ?" Bon let his unspoken question hang in the air. Yukio could tell from the tense atmosphere that everyone else was asking themselves the same thing- _Just what exactly was this guy?_

"Hmph." The demon seemed to be studying them each with an appraising eye before a sneer formed on his face. "Why should I tell you? Aren't you going to introduce yourself first?"

When Neuhaus stepped forward, Yukio had to clench his teeth to ignore his gut urge to pull his teacher away from the strange demonic teen, reminding himself that he was a logical person and most definitely _did not _follow gut urges. Still, the exorcist-in-training could not help but feel that nothing good would come out of this exchange.

"I guess that only makes sense, as we were the ones to summon you into Assiah," Neuhaus started, pausing to look carefully at the boy before continuing, "I am Igor Neuhaus, exorcist teacher. And these are my students."

The demon raised his eyebrow. Sweeping his glance over the loose circle of teenagers, his eyes locked onto Yukio, and the human boy could feel an impending tingle of doom travel down his spine like a storm warning.

"Oi, you- What's your name?"

"... Yukio."

"You're the one who 'summoned' me, right?"

"... Yes."

There was a moment of silence as the demon stared at Yukio, and the page couldn't help but feel like the demon was looking into his soul. With a small nod and a 'fair enough,' the demon turned his attention back to the teacher.

"Right then. My name's Rin. Just Rin. No 'Prince' or any o' that crap."

"'Prince?'" Yukio muttered under his breath. _Why would anyone want to call him that? And why does the demon have a name? Unless he's... _Yukio didn't want to think about _that _possibility.

"Who are you kin to? Which king?" Neuhaus asked bluntly. The teacher's voice carried an air of nervousness not usually evident in his stoic tone. Every demon (with the exeption of Satan himself) had to be related to one of the eight demon kings. It would be quite the problem for Neuhaus and company if Rin turned out to be a descendant of one of the stronger kings.

"Which ... king? Oh- Pfft. Those loonies?" Yukio felt the demon's next words drop down his back like ice cubes, cold and shocking.

"Nah, I'm the son of Lord Satan himself."

~ † ~

Welp.

At least Yukio now knew why someone might say that Rin (Yukio still wasn't used to calling a demon by a such a human name) was a 'Prince,' even though it was obvious from the way the demon dressed and acted that he was far from it.

It still took Yukio and the others a few minutes to absorb this. Once that two-minute grace period was over, however, Yukio was instantly hit with a wave of emotions that he didn't even recognize at first. Then he realized. It was fury. Anger. Denial. Vengance.

All these things smashed into Yukio and before he knew it, the careful barrier that Yukio had built up against _that _corner of his heart was washed away, giving away his feelings through his eyes.

"Y-You... You... Satan?" Yukio's tongue abandoned him halfway through.

The demon- Rin Rin _Rin Don't forget his name_- seemed unfazed (or oblivious) at Yukio's epic inner turmoil. "Oi, who you callin' Satan? I'm Rin, damnit! Don't confuse me with that crazy old bat!"

Yukio ignored the demon's protests and stepped forward, his right hand lunging out to grab Rin's collar. There was a pause when Rin reached up and easily caught the page's wrist, stopping his motion. Yukio's glasses flashed before he deftly pulled back his hand and prepared to throw a punch.

"What is your _problem_?"

Not paying any heed to the demon's aggravated cry, Yukio'a fist soared forward- before it was deftly caught by Neuhaus, who'd somehow managed to get between the two of them in the blink of an eye.

"Not now, Yukio. He is your familiar, and if you have problems with his lineage you can sort it out later. Class is not for fighting." Something in Neuhaus' voice sounded off, strained.

It was this subtle difference cause snapped Yukio out of his rage. He reluctantly shrunk back, sill glaring at Rin, who didn't seemed bothered at all. The rest of the class watched awkwardly, as the majority understood Yukio had some past complications with Satan, although most weren't aware to what degree. Only the Kyoto trio could possibly understand how Yukio was feeling at the moment- Bon looking at Rin as if he wanted to personally put some silver bullets between the demon's eyes.

Clearing his throat, Neuhaus reached over and grabbed the blood-smeared paper with the summoning circle drawn on it from Yukio's shaking hands. With a clearly defined _rippppp_, said paper was torn into two. Neuhaus' past words echoed faintly in Yukio's head:_ "When the summoning circle is destroyed, the familiar will be dispelled."_

If things were going bad before, then what happened now could equate to something rivaling the apocalypse.

That is, nothing happened.

_Nothing_.

Rin was still standing there, completely clueless to the multiple laws of exorcism he'd just broken.

Yukio found himself absolutely dumbstruck for the second time in one day.

Their teacher looked down nervously at the two halves of paper in his hands. He tore them into fourths for good measure.

Still, nothing happened.

Yukio heard a distant laugh, cold, hard, and burning. He wasn't quite sure if it was in his head or if it was actually Satan, mocking them.

"W-What is this...?" Yukio hated himself for the way his voice had suddenly become very small and very scared.

"What is what?"

"You were summoned by this circle... So you have to go back to Gehenna when the summoning circle is interfered with, r-right?"

"..." Rin looked absolutely blown away. (As in, he didn't understand a word Yukio just said.) After a moment, his eyes went wide. Though apparently not from the revelation that he'd just done the impossible. Lifting his head, he sniffed once, twice- each time his eyes growing narrower. Yukio wasn't sure whether he should laugh at the rather animalistic actions, or run for his life.

"Is that... Amaimon? No, wait..."

There was a moment of silence as the students stared, most of them still open mouthed, at Rin as if he was crazy. Apparently, the spawn of Satan had some strange ability to smell or sense other demons, if his muttering of the Earth Demon King's name was anything to go by.

Yukio could practically see the '!' appear over Rin's head as surprise painted itself onto the demon's face. He saw the corner of Rin's mouth move, as if he was whispering something, but his words were lost to the sharp sound of whistling air.

Rin's tail shot up in shock as the demon crumpled to the ground, his cyan flames fading and his eyes losing the vibrant crimson that previously dominated his pupils. The reason for his sudden collapse was none other then a very familiar figure in bright cream-colored clothes who was now standing nonchalantly on Rin's flailing form.

"Greetings, Rin. And hello, students." Stepping off of Rin's back, Mephisto mocked a dramatic bow and added, "Chairman Faust at your service."

Too (third time in the span of less than half an hour) surprised to realize that Mephisto somehow knew Rin's name without asking, Yukio just stood in shock, staring at the man who had seemingly fallen from the ceiling.

"... Mephisto." Getting up, Rin's eyes seemed to flare with something just short of recognition. "What've you b-"

Rin's train of speech was aruptly stopped as Mephisto brandished his patchwork umbrella at him. The demon seemed to have trouble moving his mouth- it was as if he was chewing on caramel, or something of similar consistency.

"Now then, let's get down to business." Turning to face Yukio and the rest of the students, Mephisto continued, "Since this... demon here is technically Yukio's familiar, and he seems to be trapped in this world,-" Mephisto's dark sneer showed that he knew more than he let on about that- "I'll have him stay with Yukio in the abandoned boys dormitory. Yukio, you are in charge of managing him, and oh- you can take him to your cram school classes to keep an eye on him."

Although Yukio was left just short of absolutely flabbergasted at the chairman's straightforward dump of information, the glint in Mephisto's eyes told him that nothing was up for discussion.

"I should probably have a chat with Satan's spawn here about our school now, eh?" Taking advantage of Rin's dazed state, he grabbed the demon's arm and dragged him into the hallway. Once the two were out of the room, a weighted silence fell upon the students, broken only when Neuhaus told them shakily to open their textbooks to page sixty-four.

~ † ~

"It's nice to finally meet Satan's most valuable pawn, little brother." Mephisto studied the boy up and down, carefully observing the new addition the playing board. How was this young prince going to affect his oh-so-meticulously planned game?

"So you're Mephisto? Satan wasn't kidding when he said you'd gotten yourself into some deep shit in Assiah, then," Rin snorted, ripping his arm from Mephisto's grip. "What in hell's name are you doing here in an _exorcist school,_ of all things?"

"Ah. I perceived that I'd be running into this problem one day. 'Why,' you ask? This place is like a playground for me, so I wish to stay. Soon Satan will understand my reasons. In fact, I'll probably be back to visit dear Father again very soon."

"I don't think the old man's gonna take to that that too much," Rin answered with a grim smile. He understood the hidden meaning behind Mephisto's words: _You're useful to me for this plan. Don't tell Satan anything, and I won't betray your motives to him. _

"... But I like it," the demon prince added. With a conspiratorial grin, Rin burst into flames and dissapeared, leaving only a smirking Mephisto the smell of ashes.

"What a troublesome little brother. He will do very nicely."


	4. Human Demon

**A/N: Um... sorry this took so long? I wasn't really up to writing, and I was on vacation. And I know it's kind of short, too, but I promise the next chapter will be up sooner and be more lenghthy as well as more exciting!**

**This chapter decided to commit mutiny against me multiple times, but it's finally up!**

**Thanks for all you guys' continuous support! I really cannot use words to describe how much I appreciate you reading my story!**

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~ Human Demon ~

To say that Rin was pissed would've been a severe understatement.

The first offense was committed in the unholy hours of the early morning, when Amaimon stole one of his favorite Bariyon- the one shaped like a lounging chair- and subsequently hid it in Satan's personal quarters (how the Earth King got in there time and time again Rin would never know.) The consequential chewing out resulted in Rin thanking whatever ruling entity there was besides Satan that he was immune to the infamous blue flames of the Demon Lord.

And then, while relieving his anger in an interesting sparring match with a mid-class demon servant, some dumbass exorcists just _had _to go and summon him. He'd never felt the strange pulling sensation before, but when he opened his eyes and saw the humans, he had gotten a pretty good idea of what happened. And of course, it just had to be some puny exorcists-in-training at goddamn Samael's- or Mephisto's, _whatever_- school, a place Satan had been complaining about for _decades_.

And to top the whole thing off, Rin was now officially stuck, and very confused. When the bastardly demon king had finished up their little "conversation," Rin had burst into flames, which would normally incinerate his host send him back to Gehenna. Unfortunately, when he did, the world only turned black for a second, and instead of seeing the familiar obsidian turrets of Gehenna, Rin was faced with a burst of purple smoke before he stood, discombobulated, in front of a ratty looking old dorm.

_What is going on?_

Rin, hoping for some answers, decided that whoever was blocking him from returning should have redirected him to this dormitory for a reason, and with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, he pushed open the worn doors of the building.

The first thing that hit his oversensitive nose was the smell of dust. _Was this place abandoned? _Rin looked down the empty but lit hallway, and was surprised to hear the sound of dishes clattering. He jumped, startled, and proceeded quietly to the room that the sound had come from. Turning the corner into what he assumed was a mess hall, he promptly froze and gaped.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

A startled Yukio looked up from his late dinner at the sound of the demon yelling. He didn't say anything, though- he wasn't exactly sure how to react to Rin suddenly stomping into the abandoned dorm occupied by only himself and Ukobach.

"Yu-Yukio-" Rin mentally patted himself on the back for remembering the page's name. "- Why the fuck are _you _here?"

Yukio supressed an eye-twitch. "I live here, of course. This is my dorm."

"... Does that mean I'm stuck here, too?"

"Of course."

There was a very awkward, very tense pause.

Yukio got up, his chair scraping on the floor. He still felt a quiet, murderous rage at the spawn of his greatest enemy, but he needed to think with sense right now.

"I should show you to your room."

"Che. Damn right you should."

~ † ~

After showing a wary Rin to the dorm room next to his own, Yukio was ready to crash. He'd already finished most of his homework before dinner, and all that was left were cram school assignments, and they didn't usually take long. His mind was strained from the events of that day, and he leaned back in his desk chair, covering his eyes with the back of his hand.

He should try to sort out his feelings about Rin, he knew he should, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. All day he'd been holding back the wave of rage and pain with a wall of self-preservation and restraint, but he knew he couldn't do it forever.

Before he could do any more thinking, there was a crash from the direction of said demon's room, followed by a string of rapid, multilingual curses and a questionable shriek (or was it a squeal?).

Afraid that Rin had broken something important, Yukio marched over to the adjacent dorm, slamming open the door.

Yukio paused. He honestly was not sure how to respond to the scene in front of him.

Rin's back was on the floor, and on his chest was a strange black cat with two tails and- were those _horns_? The demon boy's body was covered in blue flames, as well as the majority of the floor, and the now broken desk chair. There was also a very suspicious dent in the ceiling, and Yukio did _not_ want to know why there was a katana impaled on the linoleum floor, also wreathed in cyan flames.

"I just don't-" Sigh. "... Please tell me why the room is on fire."

Rin looked up, seemingly only just noticing that there was another person in the dorm. His previously exuberant smile fell. "Um... I forgot that wood could burn?"

"You forgot." Yukio resisted the urge to facepalm at the blunt confession. "You forogt that _wood_ is perfectly combustible."

"... Yes?"

"Please tell me that your flames don't actually _burn_ things." Yukio rubbed the bridge of his nose. Where did he keep the headache medicine again? The bathroom cupboard?

"They don't." Rin said quickly. "They'll dissapear when I dispell them."

Yukio looked at him, eyebrow raised. With a sigh, the demon supressed his power and the blue fires died down.

"And why is there a cat demon in the dorms?"

Rin made a face. "It's a cat _sith_, dumbass. And his name is Kuro. He's my familiar."

_Demons can have familiars? _Yukio stopped himself from asking, feeling that it wouldn't be particularly helpful to the conversation at hand. Shaking his head, Yukio said, "Just... Clean up this mess before you sleep."

When he left the room, Yukio felt a strange chill travel down his back. It was curious, like fear but warmer, if that made any sense.

Later, Yukio would recognize it as guilt.

Because, back in the room, even if it was just a second, Yukio forgot that Rin was a demon.


End file.
